Friday, January 14, 2022

Brazen - Too Light of Mystery for My Personal Taste

Last night I watched 2 new movies released on Netflix, but I chose to write this one instead due to various reasons. I was interested in watching this as it was a murder mystery. OK, let's get more to it.

Brief Story Line

Grace Miller (Alyssa Milano - Insatiable TV series, Kiss the Bride etc) was a successful mystery novel writer who went back to her hometown to accompany her younger sister Kathleen (Emilie Ullerup - Chesapeake Shores TV series etc) as she was having personal problem. Unbeknownst to Grace, Kathleen actually had a secret life of being webcam performer aside from working as English teacher in a private high school.

Meanwhile Grace grew close to Kathleen's neighbor Ed (Sam Page - The Bold Type TV series etc) who happened to be a police detective. When things seemed to be going well for everyone, suddenly Kathleen was found murdered and Grace decided to do everything she could to find the murderer against the advice from Ed.

So how would the story conclude? You can find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

When I was looking for a light movie, I never thought that it would be this light. The movie was not having any complicated story as it focused on the love life of Grace with her sister's neighbor Ed combined with catching a killer. Yes, the mystery was actually pretty intriguing but it was hardly a classic and very easy to deduce. In fact, I could have already guessed the culprit midway through the movie.

Btw, it is having a rather short duration of around 94 minutes, so I could finished it off quite fast. Only thing that took me longer was because I kept dozing off few times and had to rewind few minutes earlier. The TV movie feel was very strong here and I could also understand why the romance was a major focus as it was based on the novel Brazen Virtue written by Nora Roberts who is famous for writing hundreds of romance novels. I myself never read any of her books, but my wife is a huge fan of her (I think she would have liked this one).

Some of the cast here performed their roles fine, but do not expect spectacular performance. The characters were OK, though no in depth developments were done which would probably be a big disappointment for people looking for such quality. Even I thought that there was not enough context on the main characters. Grace was written as a successful writer who seemed to be totally aggressive in every way, while Ed who was supposed to be the very good detective did not show his quick perception. Worst I thought was Captain Rivera (Alison Araya) whom I did not feel to be a proper captain and only wanted to have quick result.

For a romance mystery movie, this one might be good enough for those who does not want to have heavy thinking and just want to relaxed themselves. But for audience who was looking for a great mystery while trying to find out who did the crime, I personally thought it would not be sufficient. For me, the real let down was how easy to guess the culprit as there was no shocking twist at all. I also noticed that the film was not highly regarded, although I did not think it justified such ridiculous low rating as well. It could have been due to the controversy surrounding the appointment of Alyssa Milano as the lead cast. Anyway, if you just want to spend 1.5 hour of your time watching some romance heavy, mystery TV movie, then you are welcome to try this. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars 

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